Device for protection of banks against robberies



March 19, 1940. A. wmucfi 2,194,061

, DEVICE FOR PROTECTION OF BANKS AGAINST ROBBERIES Filed Dec. 17, 1937 2Sheets-Sheet l INVENTQR. 50 94 W/OUCH. B

Y aw Z @A/ ATTORNEY.

March 19, 1940. A w uc 2,194,361

DEVICE FOR PROTECTION OF BANKS AGAINST ROBBERIES Filed Dec. 17, 1937 2Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 50 9 34 W/D/O'?- TORN A BY.

Patented Mar. 19, 1940 PATENT OFFICE DEVICE FOR PROTECTION OF BANKSAGAINST ROBBERIES Adam Widuch, MichiganCity, Ind., assignor of one-halfto Caroline Ciaglo, Hamtramck,

Mich.

Application December 1'7, 1937, Serial No. 180,325

2 Claims.

The purpose of my invention is to provide means to prevent robberies ofbanks, said means being simple in construction and design and yetefficient and made so that the device may be easily installed inpractically every bank. Another purpose of my device is not only toafford the banks and similar institutions a thorough protection againstrobberies, but also to make it possible for the employees of a givenbank to entrap the would-be robbers within the bank, and to preventtheir escape therefrom until lawenforcing agencies have had time toapprehend them within the premises of the bank.

I shall now proceed to give a thorough description of my device,referring to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevation illustrating that part of the cashiers cage whichembodies my device, also the plan elevation of the door leading to thebank.

Fig. 2 shows a sectional view of the cashiers window, taken on line 22in Fig. l.

Fig. 3 shows the arrangement of some parts of the device shown in Fig.1.

Fig. 4 shows a View, partly in section, of a pneumatic pump forming apart of my device.

Fig. 5 shows a detailed View of the shuttertripping mechanism of mydevice.

Fig 6 shows the mechanism, partly in section, serving to lock the doorof the bank.

Fig. 7 shows the detail of the pivoted arm supporting a horizontal bar23, as shown in Fig. 1.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In order that my invention be most efiicient and operable, it isdesirable that the bank have a compartment partitioned from that sectionof the bank to which the general public has access. This may be efiectedin several ways. One of them would be, for instance, to have a separateenclosure, a sort of an island enclosure, on the floor of the bank, orit would be possible to have the bank partitioned by one or more walls,as the case may be, for the purposes of providing room exclusively forthe personnel'of the bank. My invention contemplates, therefore, a solidwall partition between the employees of the bank and the general public,and calls for grilled windows placed in that wall, at which windows allordinary business transactions may be conducted.

In my drawings, this wall is indicated by numeral III, while grills areindicated by number II. Right above said grilled windows there is ashutter I2, made preferably of steel, resting on movable lugs orsupports 2|. The shutters are adapted to be lowered or raised and, forthe purpose of keeping them in a desired plane, they are provided withtongues I4 sliding within suitable grooves in guiding posts I3. Saidlugs are adapted to be actuated by cables 22, although cables may beeasily substituted by rods, said cables being attached to a horizontalbar 23, extending in front of all the grills where it is at all timesaccessible to the employees working at said windows. The bar issupported by pivoted arms 25 mounted on brackets 25, attached to thewall ill. The purpose of said bar is to serve as a means whereby thelugs 2i may be withdrawn into the space within the guiding post I3, sothat shutter I2, deprived of the support of the lugs, may slide down infront of the grills, thus shutting off the employees from the view ofthe persons outside, within the space provided for the public. With theshutters down, the employees within the section normally occupied bythem would be free from any danger from the persons outside said grill.

The construction of the mechanism actuating the lugs is shown in Fig. 5and will be described below.

The lower part of said shutter I2 is provided with projections I5.Attached to one of these projections is cable 25, which leads downwardthrough an opening in the floor 33 and, guided by sheaves 21 and 28, isconnected to lever 29.

One of the arms of the lever is weighed down by weight 3|. The other armserves to actuate an upright bolt 33 which is adapted to fit into socket34 in the bottom part of the hinged door 35, when said door is in itsnormal closed position. 32 indicates a spring holding the bolt in itsnormal position out of the socket 34. When the shutter is down, it maybe raised by means of compressed air delivered from storage tank if."and supplied to cylinders II, where said air actuates shafts I6 mountedon pistons disposed within said cyhnders, as described below. 35indicates hinges.

The employees of the bank, as above specified, are within the enclosurereserved for them and within easy distance from the bar 23. In case ofany attempted robbery, all that any of the employees has to do is tostep upon bar 23. The bar, being connected to cables 22, acts by meansof said cables upon lugs ZI, withdrawing them from under the shutter I2,whereupon said shutter falls rapidly to the base of the windows, 38,thus shielding the interior of the employees enclosure from contact andview of any persons outside said enclosure. At the same time as saidshutter falls, cable 26 becomes slack allowing weight 3! to exert a pullupon the respective arm of lever 29, this in turn acting to raise bolt33 into the door slot 31. As a result, the door leading from or into thebank is effectively locked. It is quite obvious that a number of doorsleading to the said bank may be actuated by said cable 26 and that theymay be all locked by this arrangement at the same time.

It will be seen therefrom that by means of the above namedinstrumentalities, a three-fold purpose will be achieved, namely, therobbery will be prevented; the employees will be safe within theenclosure, and the would-be robbers will be entrapped in the bank untilthe time that officers of the law will be summoned to said bank. It isquite easily conceivable that the shutter may also be connected with analarm gong placed outside the bank so that in descending, the shutterwill serve to close the electric circuit actuating such a gong.

A provision is also made for the eventuality that the door 35 may haveto be opened without raising the shutter l2. This may be accomplished bymeans of cable 38 attached to lever 29 and terminating above the floor38 in a handle or loop 49. By means of said cable 48, the respective armof the lever may be raised, thus allowing bolt 33 to slip out from itsdoor socket 3 3.

Having described the manner in which my device works, I shall nowproceed to describe with more detail the component parts thereof,although it must be understood that my invention consists not so much inthe particular construction of the component parts, as in the generalcombination of means to lower the shutter and means to lock the doors ofthe bank.

I stated above that the lugs 21 may be. Withdrawn from under the shutter52, by means of the movable bar 23. Fig.' 5 shows the detailedconstruction of this arrangement, where 23 is the bar supported by apivoted arm 25, mounted on a wall bracket 25. 22 is a cable leading fromsaid bar to a member 39 pivotally mounted at 40, one arm of which 39 isprovided with a shoulder 4! bearing against finger 32. Said finger is anintegral part of lug 2!, upon which the shutter 12 rests normally.Spring 43, bearing against the body of said lug 2i, keeps it normallyunder said shutter l2. When bar 23 is depressed by the foot of a personin the bank within the enclosure for the employees, shoulder M is madeto shift the lug 2! from under shutter 12, whereupon said shutter, byits own gravity, descends to the baseof the grilled windows over whichit is suspended. Describing the mechanism operating the lug 2|, Iconfined myself to the mechanism operating only one of said lugs at oneside end of the shutters. It will be understood, however, that at theother end of the shutter a similar mechanism is also provided.

The construction of the cylinder serving to raise the shutter is shownin Fig. 4. It consists of a shell indicated by numeral M. The shellcontains a piston 45 slidingly disposed within said cylinder, saidpiston being connected to shaft IS. The latter bears against projectionI5, afiixed to the lower part of shutter l2. Spring 45 within saidcylinder bears against the piston 65 and keeps it normally close to theinlet i9, the latter serving to introduce compressed air into saidcylinder. In operation, when it is desired to raise the shutter, theemployee within the bank may step upon valve 20, thus permittingcompressed air toescape from cylinder 59' by means of a pipe 18, throughinlet I9 into the cylinder H. The force of the compressed air.

shifts the piston to the opposite end of the cylinder ll against thetension of the spring 46, and serves to raise shutter l2 by means ofshafts l6, until said shutter passes the shiftable lug 2|. When saidshutter has passed that point, the shutter is not in a position todescend back to the level of the base of the windows until bar 23 isactuated as above stated. When the supply of air into the cylinder ll iscut off, the tension of the spring 46 serves to return piston 45 withshaft l6 back to its original position close to the inlet I9. The airthat is within the cylinder may escape gradually through a suitablepinhole indicated here by numeral 41.

Fig. 6 shows in enlargement the arrangement shown already in Fig. 1, forthe purpose of looking the door of the bank.

Other construction for the purpose of effecting the same result, thatis, lowering the shutter and closing the door of the bank, maybeprovided without departing from the idea of my invention. I, therefore,claim thefollowing:

-1. In a protecting apparatus for a baking room having an entrance, adoor for the entrance hinged at one side and having a socket open at itsbottom, and a partition dividing said room into a customers chamber anda tellers cage and formed with a service window; said apparatuscomprising a shield for said window slidable vertically from a raisedposition to a lowered position inshielding relation to the window, astrip along the bottom of said shield having extended end portionsforming arms extending from opposite sides of the shield, means forraising said shield having engagement with said arms, latch means forreleasably securing the shield in its raised position, manually actuatedmeans for moving the latch means to a releasing position, means forsecuring said door closed including a bolt and a pivoted lever forshifting the bolt into and out of an extended position to enter thesocket and secure the door closed, a weight urging said lever towards aposition for extending the bolt to its'operative position, and a pullline having one end secured to said lever and its other end secured toone arm of said shield for moving the'lever to a position eiiectingretrac-- tion of the bolt when the shield is shifted upwardly to itsraised position, downward movement of the shield slacking the pull lineand allowing movement of the weighted lever to a position shifting thebolt to its extended position into the socket for securing the doorclosed.

2. In a protecting apparatus for a banking room having an entrance doorhinged at one side, a socket carried by said door and opening throughthe lower end of the door, an opening being formed through the floor ofthe room for registering with the socket when the door is closed; saidapparatus comprising a lever pivotally mounted horizontally under thefloor of the banking room, a bolt slidable through the opening, a springurging said pin downwardly to a retracted position and holding its lowerend upon one end of said lever, a weight carried by the other end ofsaid lever for tilting the lever and shifting said bolt upwardly to anextended position for engaging in the socket and securing the doorclosed, and a pull line connected with said lever for tilting the leverabout its pivot in op-

